Lilia Marie Ellis

JOYOUS

1.
i’ve only ever loved the taste of light

so soft on the tongue
i thought it would melt
sink in
remain

(like a forest or a river 
believing it
contains itself)

2.
pariah-heart vengeance
spoken, sleeping words
that fall up as if smoke in a wine-dark
sky, sacrifice (we) left burning
swaddle both, then
keep on going

perpetual almost rain falls in perpetual autumn,
whiplash from day in day in day
running after each other in circus clothes
(all of us have
talents until our bodies’ve
been emptied
altogether)

scrawl in a menagerie of shades,
mirror-practiced apology before the mirror’s
removed
our eyes seethes
with the intonation of laser
cutting steel

(even Icarus thought he’d make it)

leftover scabs where the thorns grew moist 
(as in childhood we’d long
to pick them just to make
sure it stings rightly)
a piece of glass, just one, a person steps on
(noticed,
nothing said,
guilt,
nothing said)
heartbeat stalled at a broken traffic light
(red, red, red

3.
with a bandaged fingertip i
trace carefully an outline of
my body in all
three dimensions, how
colorful I’d look,
how intentional,
like one of those contoured maps
joyous
so very joyous